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Starboard Dazzle Camo for War Drake


Ray S

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Hello all! A plea for help here.

I have a newly acquired zest for scratchbuilding merchant ships, and on my radar now is War Drake, an 'A' Type standard ship completed in 1918. It has a wonderful dazzle camoflage scheme. A few years ago, Battlefleet Models were going to release this ship as a 1/700 resin kit, but I think that has died a death (Model Warship's website has had a thread concerning Battlefleet Models and issues, which hopefully are resolving themselves). I have managed to get a copy of 'British Ocean Tramps Vol 1' by P N Thomas, and it contains plans for the War Drake, along with a port side camo colour plate. He mentions in the text that port and starboard were always different designs, but having tried Google, I cannot find a starboard view.

Can anyone help me out please?

I would love to give this one a go, and a complete scheme would go some way to getting me to cut plastic on this one!

I also have plans for SS Politician, so I can get on with the ship that inspired the book and film 'Whisky Galore' in the meantime!

Thanks for any help you can muster,

all the best,

Ray

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  • 10 months later...

Hi Ray

The plans are War Keep (p58), slightly different from War Drake (p62). Unless you're very lucky, the starboard side scheme will probably remain a mystery. As far as I'm aware, every ship was different, and as you say port & starboard patterns were different (but generally similar in style & colour)

Some of the Norman Wilkinson models for testing the camouflage are currently on display in a cabinet in the IWM Lambeth cafe, unfortunately only one side is visible and those on the higher shelves are harder to see. I was down in the smoke on Monday and popped in to check these out as I'm looking for likely schemes for a project of mine. Fortunately though, the models have been photographed and catalogued and the results are online

The War Drake general layout (and War Keep) correspond to models with codes starting with 7, there's quite a few but I didn't see one to match Drakes port side.

That leaves you with a couple of options if you can't find the starboard pattern:-

Model War Drake as shown in the drawing and best guess the pattern on the starboard side

Model another vessel (eg War Keep) and use one of the models as a basis for the patterns on both sides

Neither will be 100% accurate, but nobody can prove you wrong.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Hello Dave, thanks for that link, it looks like there will be some issues for me doing an 'accurate' rendition of the scheme (not withstanding any accuracy issues with my scratchbuilding!). This will be a project for the future.

 

Thanks for taking the time to post the links through, it looks to be a goldmine of schemes!

 

All the best,

 

Ray

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I found Dazzle: Disguise & Disruption in War & Art by James Taylor  (ISBN 978-1910860144) a good read for £12.35 delivered from ebay. Bought it for a pal's Christmas pressie - kept  it and ordered another ... but I see more specifically Dazzle-Painted Ships of World War I by Glyn L. Evans, (978-1902953731) for around tenner, may help. Not read this one. 

 

616DqIkjMbL._SX423_BO1,204,203,200_.jpg

 

dazzle-painted-ships-of-world-war-1.jpg

 

 

 

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On 21/04/2017 at 2:23 AM, clipper said:

Dazzle-Painted Ships of World War I by Glyn L. Evans,

On a whim after seeing clipper's post above, I ordered this one, just over £7 with free postage and it arrived today, seller was Speedyhen, and lived up to her name! Small A5 softback, 76 pages published 2015. A quick flick through shows a potted history of dazzle camouflage in WW1 and the people involved, well illustrated throughout with contemporary colour illustrations/paintings and B&W photos of personalities etc. Looks like interesting background reading, but isn't going to solve Ray S's puzzle or mine. Bedtime reading this week, will report back when finished.

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Yes indeed - used speedyhen before - first class service and prices. The first book has as broader scope, but is an v.interesting read. Especially for the price, when you consider the cost of a decent daily paper. Readers photos on amazon.

Edited by clipper
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